In an earlier study, we evaluated the effectiveness of several acoustic measures in predicting breathiness ratings for sustained vowels spoken by nonpathological talkers who were asked to produce nonbreathy, moderately breathy, and very breathy phonation (Hillenbrand, Cleveland, & Erickson, 1994). The purpose of the present study was to extend these results to speakers with laryngeal pathologies and to conduct tests using connected speech in addition to sustained vowels. Breathiness ratings were obtained from a sustained vowel and a 12-word sentence spoken by 20 pathological and 5 nonpathological talkers. Acoustic measures were made of (a) signal periodicity, (b) first harmonic amplitude, and (c) spectral tilt. For the sustained vowels, a frequency domain measure of periodicity provided the most accurate predictions of perceived breathiness, accounting for 92% of the variance in breathiness ratings. The relative amplitude of the first harmonic and two measures of spectral tilt correlated moderately with breathiness ratings. For the sentences, both signal periodicity and spectral tilt provided accurate predictions of breathiness ratings, accounting for 70%-85% of the variance.

The responses given to each of 466 Communication Inventory items by a group of 100 nonstutterers were contrasted with those given by a criterion group of 50 stutterers. A scale of communication attitudes (S-scale) was empirically derived on the basis of item responses that differentiated stutterers from nonstutterers. This scale was further refined by eliminating items that, in two additional groups of subjects, failed to demonstrate significant correlation with the dichotomy of stutterer versus nonstutterer. Observed relationships between S-scale scores and (1) self- and clinician-ratings of stuttering severity, (2) self-ratings of improvement since beginning therapy, and (3) self-ratings and self-descriptions of reactions to social conversation suggest that the S-scale does provide information about attitudes of stutterers toward interpersonal communication. The scores obtained on this scale are related to other criterion measures of interest to the speech pathologist, and the method by which the scale was derived appears to be a useful one.

No abstract

This study investigated the comprehension of speech among children in maturational stages of linguistic development when speech was presented at varying rates of utterance by a trained speaker. Five groups, each consisting of a subgroup of 10 kindergarten and a subgroup of 10 second-grade children, were presented with a tape-recorded administration of the receptive section of the Northwestern Syntax Screening Test (NSST). Each group heard the test at one or another of the following rates: 2.6, 3.4, 4.7, 5.3, or 6.3 syllables per second. A mean comprehension score was determined for each group and subgroup, and a treatment-by-levels analysis of variance was completed. Results indicated that comprehension was higher at the two slower rates than at the three faster rates. Rate by grade interaction was nonsignificant and comprehension differences between sexes appeared virtually nonexistent.

No abstract